Signaling apparatus



UNITED; STATES PATENT ROY 0. CROWLEY, OF ELIZABETH, INEW'JERSEY. I

SIGNALING APIPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters IPatent No. 539,421, dated May 21, 1895.

' Application filed July 2, 1894;. Serial F0. 516 ,273. (No modelfl To all whom, it mag concern.-

Be it known that I, ROY O. CROWLEY, a

. citizen of the United States, and a resident of Elizabeth, county of Union, and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Signaling, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to means for signaling, and consists in signal screens with improved signal characters adapted to be clearly visible at long distances at night, as hereinafter described.

In the accompanying drawings, Figures 1 and 2 are front and side views, with parts broken away, of the preferred form of signalcabinet. Fig. 3 shows the improved signalalphabet. Fig. 4. shows signal-screens for displaying the letters of the alphabet. Fig. 5 shows similar screens for signaling numerals.

In signaling, for example, between ships at sea, or between a ship and a fort or station on shore, I use a suitable case or cabinet A, in one or both sides of which is or are a transverse opening or transverse openings B, and a longitudinal slot or slots 0, adapted to receive signal frames or screens D. The ends of the cabinet may be closed with any suitable material, but one end is preferably closed with ground glass F, or other semi transparent material so that light will be emitted to enable the operator to select the screens which are preferably placed below the light chamber in the cabinet, as shown. The opposite end of the cabinet may, if desired, be left open, so also may the top of the cabinet. Within the upper chamber of the cabinet is located any suitable source of light, such as one or more oil, or electric lamps, a single electric arc lamp being shown at E for purpose of illus- I find that the ordinanyMorseobjection is that the letters are made so long by the end to end arrangement of the elements (dots and dashes) employed in the telegraph alphabet that they cannot be placed on my signal screens without making the openings indicating dots and dashes too small for practical use, or, second, requiring the screens to.

the dot or dots in a letter before and in the same line with the dash or dashes I place the dots above the dashes; and instead of placing the dots in a letter after the dashes, I place the dots below the dashes. These changes are shown, for example, in Fig. 3, at a and b. The effects of these changes are to make the dots and dashes more distinct from each other than in the old arrangement, and also to allow theopenings in the signal screen to be larger than would otherwise be practicable.

G, H, are, respectively, dot and dash openings in a screen. When a letter is composed of dots, and a space occurs between some of them I insert a line, similar to a dash but ar ranged vertically or nearly so in said space to more clearly show the fact that there is a space. This is illustated in Fig. 3 at c.

responding to said upright line. Then a character has more than one dash or line I place them side by side instead of end to end. See 9 and m, and 2 and 3. The letters which are composed wholly of dots not divided into groups by a space, ash, 'i, and p, Iuse without changel To still further distinguish the dots from the dashes in the same letter, I propose to place in the dot openings G glass of one color, as white or blue; and in the dash or line openings glass of another color, asred. This reduces the danger of error.

The form of the numerals is shown by the openings in the screens in Fig. 5. right openings (including the diagonal openings at 6, 7), will beprovided with glass of a certaimcolor, and the circular openings with glass of a difierent color. In the numerals 8, 9, the line opening is divided, and the circular opening with differently colored glass is in terposed. The circular opening for the zero may be made larger than that for the letter c and that for the period, although these characters will ordinarily be distinguished by their location. The lower screen in Fig. 5 is designed to be used between numbers in signaling.

The mode of signaling with the screens shown in Figs. 4 and 5, and the cabinet shown in Fig. l, is to take the screens one at a time in theproper order, inserting them in slotC on the side toward which the signal is to be directed, or on both sides if desired, so that beams of light will flash outthroughthe openings or the transparent. glass therein, clearly showing the signal character to a great distance. The screen is then withdrawn and another inserted, and so on until. thesignal. By duplicating the screens pare to receive signals. This may be made with a slide of blue or other colored glass.

In signaling imperforate screens may be used during the insertion and withdrawal of the signal screens to prevent the signal light being seen by the distant observer.

I claim 1. Asignal screen havingopenings arranged in the form of signal characters made up of dots and dashes, or lines, the openings, corresponding to dots inthe character on the screen, being covered with transparent material of one color, and the openings correspondingto the'dashes or lines of the same character being of another color.

ROY O. GROVVLEY.

Witnesses:

P. D. CROWLEY,

L. BELCHER. 

